Eight security personnel killed in Peshawar blast (Lead)

Peshawar, March 7 (IANS) Eight security personnel were killed when an abandoned car they sought to check exploded on the outskirts of Pakistan’s Peshawar city Saturday. Residents of Badahber village had alerted the police to the car parked on a roadside with a man’s body inside. As the police team approached it, the vehicle blew up, the authorities said.

A media report identified the dead as five policemen and three Frontier Constabulary soldiers. At least six people were injured.

Dawn News quoted a police official as saying that a remote-controlled bomb was planted in the car.

The bombing comes close on the heels of Tuesday’s terror attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore that killed six policemen and two civilians dead. Six Sri Lankan players and an assistant coach were injured.